Toy emergency vehicle with housing



Jan. 24, 1956 R. N. CARVER TOY EMERGENCY VEHICLE WITH HOUSING r n e Z MM/ Z MM 0 M M, INVENTOR.

RICHARD N. CARVER BY ATTORNEY 4 I z 8 VI w u w a u m e h "M Z 7% ll: .m 5 w m M 2 0 .m. N Hm u n 1. m N III: M\ o 4 4+ 4 a Z w 2 a 5 o e 4 1 5 I n M w J 1 1 A. a a W Q United States Patent 2,731,765 TOY EMERGENCY VEHICLE WITH HOUSING Richard N. Carver, Erie, Pa., assignor to Louis Marx & Company, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application June 16, 1953, Serial No. 361,956 12 Claims. (CI. 46-12) This invention relates to vehicle toys, particularly those simulating vehicles of an emergency type such as a fire engine, or police car, or ambulance, etc., combined with a simulated station such as a fire house or police station.

Toys are already known which simulate a fire house, and which are provided with toy vehicles which run out of, or are ejected from, the fire house on sounding of an alarm. For convenience I shall refer in the present description to a fire house toy, but it will be understood that the invention is equally well applicable to a patrol car or riot car housed in a simulated police station, or to an ambulance in a hospital garage, or to a military vehicle or the like.

The primary object of the present invention is to generally improve such toys.

A more particular object is to provide a toy combining a simulated building and a vehicle, with exceedingly simple and inexpensive means to energize the vehicle while it is in the building, and to control its emergence from the building. A more specific object is to apply the invention to a vehicle toy having a motor of the inertia or flywheel type.

Still another object of the invention is to provide the toy with sound-producing means simulating, for example, a siren, and to so arrange matters that the siren sounds while the fire engine is still in the station, and travels along with the fire engine when it leaves the station. Such a toy is more realistic than toys heretofore made in which a siren is mounted in the fire house, and sounds only prior to departure of the fire engine, instead of going along with the fire engine and continuing to sound during its travel.

As so far described it may be assumed that the front of the fire house is open. In accordance with a further feature and object of my invention, the fire house is pro vided with doors which are normally self closing, yet which are opened almost effortlessly when pushed by the fire engine, so that they do not noticeably impede its motion. A further object is to provide such doors which are simple and inexpensive in construction.

To accomplish the foregoing general objects, and other more specific objects which will hereinafter appear my invention resides in the vehicle and station elements, and their relation one to another, as are hereinafter more particularly described in the following specification. The specification is accompanied by a drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a simulated building embodying features of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a section taken in elevation approximately in the plane of the line 2-2 of Fig. l, with the vehicle in the building;

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the building;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section taken approximately in the plane of the line 4-4 of Fig. 1, with the vehicle in the building;

Fig. 5 is a detail drawn to enlarged scale and explanatory of the invention; and

Fig. 6 is a section through a guide trough or channel, with other associated parts removed.

wheels are preferably disposed back of the highest point of the rollers, but not so far back as to come down to the Referring to the drawing, particularly Figs. 2 and 4, the toy comprises a simulated vehicle 12, and a station for the same, the said station preferably though not necessarily simulating a building 14. In the present case the building is generally designated 14, and is large enough to receive and house the vehicle. The vehicle 12 is equipped with an inertia motor 16. This neednot be described in detail for such motors are conventional, and have been widely used in toys for many years. There is simply a train of step-up gearing starting at the vehicle axle and terminating in a high speed flywheel of considerable mass, which once set into rotation as by pushing the vehicle forcibly along the floor, will continue to drive the vehicle for some time thereafter.

The motor rectangle generally designated 16 further includes a sound-producing device. This may take any of a number of forms already known, and may generate any of a number of different sounds, such as a hell or an.

exhaust noise or the like, but for the present purpose it preferably produces a siren sound. The siren sound may be produced by a miniature but true siren utilizing a stator and rotor as shown in Marx Patent 2,050,892, issued August 11, 1936, or it may be of a more recent inexpensive type which comprises a diaphragm vibrated by a serrated wheel in such a way as to simulate a siren sound.

The building 14 includes a roller 20 made of rubber or like frictional material, and mounted on a shaft 22 which runs transversely of the direction of the vehicle 12 when disposed in the building 14. The roller 20 is disposed near the bottom of the building in such position that the driven wheel 24 of the vehicle rests on the roller 20 when l the vehicle is placed in the building. In the usual case the two Wheels 24 and 26 of the vehicle are both driven wheels secured to a common axle 28, and in such case the roller shaft 22 is preferably provided with another roller 30 on which the wheel 26 rests, as is best shown in Fig. 4.

The toy preferably comprises a suitable means, in this case the back wall 32 of the building coacting with the rear bumper 34 of the vehicle, to limit the rearward movement of the vehicle when the wheels are on the rollers.

It will be understood that if the vehicleis not designed as here shown to exactly fitthe building, an appropriate stop may be provided. Specifically, if the rear bumper 34 of the vehicle does not reach the rear wall 32, the rear wall may be provided with a suitable projection to fill the vacant space, and thus to prevent rearward movement of the vehicle beyond the desired energizing position. From examination of Figs. 2 and 5 it will be seen that this desired position keeps the Wheels resting on the rollers,

and raised from the support surface 36 which otherwise would receive the same. It will also be seen that the support surface 36. This relationship of the Wheels and rollers has a number of advantages which will be explained later.

The building 14 further comprises a means to drive the roller shaft 22 with its rollers 20 and 30. In the present case this means comprises a crank 33 (Figs. 1

and 4), the shaft 40 of which carries a relatively large diameter gear 42, which meshes with a relatively small diameter pinion 44 on the roller shaft 22. Thus the crank is connected to the rollers by step-up gearing, and it will be evident that by turning the crank the rollers will be set into high speed rotation. This in turn drives the wheels 24 and 26, and thus energizes the inertiamotor.

in order to increase the friction between the vehicle wheels and the rollers the building may, if desired, be provided with resiiient means to help hold the vehicle downwardly on the rollers. In the present toy a rela-- tively long, downwardly convex leaf spring 50 is mounted beneath the roof 52 of the building. This spring is dimensioned to bear against the top of the vehicle as shown at 54 in Fig. 2. At the same time the relative contours of the spring and the top of the vehicle aresuch as not to obstruct, discharge of the vehicle from the building, apart from the slight friction therebetween. The spring 50 is preferably secured at only one end, as indicated by the eyelet 56, the other end being left free in order to accommodate fiexure of the spring.

With the construction shown it will be seen that when the vehicle is pushed rearwardly into the building it comes to rest in a predetermined position, with a kind of snap engagement as the rear wheels roll over the top or dead center of the rollers. The crank then is. turned clockwise, causing the rollers to turn counterclockwise, thus turning the wheels of the vehicle in a clockwise direction, as is desired for forward motion. It will be evident that the counterclockwise rotation of the rollers tends to urge and hold the vehicle rearwardly, thus it self preventing premature departure of the vehicle. The wheels 24. and 2.6 and the rollers 29' and 30 are preferably both made of rubber or like frictional material. Moreover, the weight of the vehicle, and the force of the spring 50, and the direction of rotation of the rollers, all combine to. increase the frictional engagement therebetween, thus insuring that the inertia motor will be brought up to desired speed.

To discharge the vehicle it is merely necessary to slow, or even better to abruptly stop, rotation of the crank 38, for this stops the rollers 20' and 30, whereupon the continued high speed rotation of the inertia motor propels the vehicle off the rollers and out of the building. Thus an inexpensive crank, with one gear and pinion, serve as the entire mechanism needed to both powerize the vehicle, and to control its emergence from the station.

Moreover, during rotation of the crank the soundproducing device or siren is brought up to speed, thus sonndinga Warning alarm, and when the crank is stopped the vehicle speeds out of the building with a continued sounding of the siren, and with the ensuing siren noise moving along with the vehicle during its travel.

As so far described the building 14 may be assumed to be open at the front. It is preferably provided with doors, and referring to Fig. 3 of the drawingit will: be seen' that in the present case there are two doors 60 and 62 each pivoted near its outer edge 64 and 66 by means of generally upright pivots 68, 70 and 72, 74. On further inspection of Fig. 3 it will be seen that the pivots are'not truly upright, and that instead they converge upwardly in the plane of the doors. On reflection it will be seen that with this arrangement the weight of the door 60 tends to move it to the closed or solid line position shown. The same applies to the door 62. However, the closing force is slight, and there is virtually no resistance to opening of the doors when pushed from inside by the vehicle. The doors. then swing outwardly, and if swung all the way open will assume the position shown in broken lines at 60 and 62'. At this time the width of the door opening is more than adequate to afford passage of the vehicle through the front of the building.

In the specific case here shown the building is made of sheet metal, but the doors are molded out of a suitable plastic, and the hinge pins are molded integrally with the doors.

The construction of the simulated building may vary.

In the present case a single piece of sheet metal is bent to form the rear wall 80 (Fig. l), the side walls. 82. and 84, and the inwardly bent door frame parts 86 and 88 shown in Fig. 3. The roof 52 is a single piece of sheet metal bent to appropriate shape and secured to the side walls by' conventional tongue and slot connections, not shown in the drawing. A simulated sign board 90'rnay be disposed; at the" front of the building, and" this may be appropriately lettered to indicate that the building is a tire house, or a police station, etc., as the case may be. If it be a tire house the vehicle is preferably colored red, and if the building be a police station the vehicle is preferably colored green, and if it be a hospital garage the vehicle is preferably made white, and so on.

The bottom or running surface 36 is preferably in the form of a guide trough or channel. The side walls 92 may be formed integrally with the bottom wall 36, and are spaced apart an amount slightly greater than the tread of the vehicle, thus acting as guides to receive the vehicle when it is being inserted in the building, and also to guide the vehicle when it runs out of the building. The side walls 92 serve the additional function of stiffening the bottom wall 36. The latter rests substantially flush with the bottom of the building at its forward end, and preferably is raised somewhat at its rear end, as is clearly shown in Fig. 2. This provides clearance for the roller shaft and rollers. Also the incline.

helps accelerate the vehicle when it is discharged from.

the building. The rear end of the channel 36 is secured to the rear wall of the building, as by means of tongue and slot connections shown at 94 and 96 in Figs. 1 and 1 2 of the drawing.

The stepup gearing forming a part of the buildingis housed in a motor box which utilizes the sidev wall 84 of the building as one of its sides. The opposite orin ner side 100. of the motor box is bent outwardly to form upright spaced walls 102, best shown in Fig. l, a nd if desired, a horizontal spacer wall 104 shown in, Fig.4. These spacer walls are secured to the side. wall.84 of the building by means of conventional tongue and slot connections.

The rollershaft bearings 106 at the track or channel. 36 may be formed out of the metal of the bottom -36,-f which is struck downwardly as shown in Fig. 6 to form openings through which the upper parts of the rollers:

project, as shown in Fig. 4.

It is believed that the construction and operation,

well as the advantages of my improved toy, will be apparent from the foregoing detailed description. It will also be apparent that while I have shown and described my invention in apreferred form, changes may be made in' the structure shown, without departing from the $009 of the invention, as sought to be defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A toy comprising, in combination, a simulated vehi cle and a' station for the same, said vehicle having an inertia motor and a wheel driven thereby, and said station having a frictional roller running transversely of the direction of the vehicle when in the station, said roller being disposed in the station in such position that'the driven wheel of the vehicle rests on the roller when the vehicle is in the station, means limiting rearward movement of the vehicle when its wheel is on the roller, and meansto drive the roller at high speed,'whereby the rotation of the roller energizes the inertia motor, and'stoppage of rotation of said roller causes the vehicle'to run out-of the station.

2. A toy comprising, in combination, a simulated vehicle and a simulated building receiving the-same, said 'vehi cle having an inertia motor and a wheel driven thereby,"

and said building having a frictional roller'runni'ng transversely of the direction of the vehicle when in the'build ing, said roller being disposed near the bottom of the building in such position that the driven wheel of'the vehicle rests on the roller when the vehicle is placedin the building, means limiting rearward movement of the vehicle when its'wheel is on the roller, and means to drive the.

roller at high speed, whereby the rotation of'th'e' roller.

energizes the inertia motor, and stoppage, of said' m'e'ans" causes the vehicle to run out of the building. 3,. A toy comprising, in combinatiomasimulated"velz icle and'a simulatedbuilding receiving the same,

cle having an inertia motor and a wheel driven thereby and a noise-maker driven thereby, and said building having a frictional roller running transversely of the direction of the vehicle when in the building, said roller being disposed near the bottom of the building in such position that the driven wheel of the vehicle rests on the roller when the vehicle is placed in the building, means limiting rearward movement of the vehicle when its wheel is on the roller back of the highest point of the roller, and a crank and step-up gearing to drive the roller at high speed, whereby the rotation of the roller energizes the inertia motor, and stoppage of rotation of the crank and roller causes the vehicle to run out of the building.

4. A toy comprising, in combination, a simulated vehicle and a simulated building receiving the same, said vehicle having an inertia motor and wheels driven thereby, and said building having a pair of frictional rollers mounted on a shaft running transversely of the direction of the vehicle when in the building, said rollers being disposed near the bottom of the building in such position that the driven wheels of the vehicle rest on the rollers when the vehicle is placed in the building, means limiting rearward movement of the vehicle when its wheels are on the rollers back of the highest point of the rollers, and a crank and step-up gearing to drive the roller shaft and rollers at high speed, whereby the rotation of the rollers energizes the inertia motor, and stoppage of rotation of the crank and rollers then causes the vehicle to run out of the buildmg.

5. A toy comprising, in combination, a simulated vehicle and a simulated building receiving the same, said vehicle having an inertia motor and wheels driven thereby and a noise-maker driven thereby, and said building having a pair of frictional rollers mounted on a shaft running transversely of the direction of the vehicle when in the building, said rollers being disposed near the bottom of the building in such position that the driven wheels of the vehicle rest on the rollers when the vehicle is placed in the building, means limiting rearward movement of the vehicle when its wheels are on the rollers back of the highest point of the rollers, and a crank and step-up gearing to drive the roller shaft and rollers at high speed, whereby the rotation of the rollers energizes the inertia motor and operates the sound-producing device, and stoppage of rotation of the crank and rollers then causes the vehicle to run out of the building at high speed with accompanying sound.

6. A toy as defined in claim 2, in which there is a resilient means dimensioned to bear against a part of the vehicle to help hold the same downwardly on the roller to help increase the friction between the roller and the wheel of the vehicle.

7. A toy as defined in claim 4, in which there is mounted beneath the roof of the building a relatively long, downwardly convex leaf spring dimensioned to bear against the top of the vehicle and to help hold the same downwardly on the rollers to help increase the friction between the rollers and the wheels of the vehicle, the relative contours of the spring and the top of the vehicle being such as not to obstruct discharge of the vehicle from the building.

8. A toy as defined in claim 2, in which the front end of the building is provided with a door which is normally closed but which readily opens when pushed from within by the vehicle as it leaves the building.

9. A toy as defined in claim 4, in which the front end of the building is provided with doors which are normally closed but which readily swing outward when pushed from within by the vehicle as it leaves the building, said doors having generally upright pivots near their outer edges, but said pivots converging upward in the plane of the front of the building, whereby gravitational force on the doors tends to keep the same in closed position.

10. A toy as defined in claim 2, in which the building has a bottom surface which is inclined upwardly from the front of the building to the rear, thereby providing clearance for the roller shaft therebeneath, said surface being cut away to receive the upper part of the roller.

11. A toy as defined in claim 4, in which the building has a bottom surface which is inclined upwardly from the front of the building to the rear, thereby providing clearance for the roller shaft therebeneath, said surface being cut away to receive the upper parts of the rollers, and the cut-away parts being bent downwardly to a vertical position to act as bearings to receive the roller shaft.

12. A toy comprising, in combination, a simulated vehicle and a station for the same, said vehicle having an inertia motor and a wheel driven thereby, said station having a frictional roller running transversely of the direction of the vehicle when in the station, said roller being disposed in the station in such position that the driven wheel of the vehicle rests on the roller when the vehicle is in the station, and means to drive the roller.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,578,022 Florkey Mar. 23, 1926 1,623,144 Weiss Apr. 5, 1927 1,693,128 Warner Nov. 27, 1928 2,016,782 Heppner Oct. 8, 1935 2,050,892 Marx Aug. 11, 1936 2,135,584 Lohr Nov. 8, 1938 2,624,154 Plawner Jan. 6, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,003,384 France Nov. 14, 1951 

